By Kathryn “Sunny” Lippert, Turtle Enthusiast

 

Hi and welcome to the Gulf Coast, where we take sea turtle rescue very seriously! Every year hundreds of local volunteers train, patrol, nest-sit and cheer on hatchlings as they find the way to the surf and swim to another home. Sea turtles are endangered species. They are federally protected. Volunteers are supervised by U.S. Fish and Wildlife. I completed my first year volunteering from May through September so I’m not an expert but I have learned a lot that I was asked to share. Our turtle season is from May 1 through the end of October. To volunteer, we attended training in April and May. We have to pass a test to qualify as volunteers and are accompanied by experienced volunteers until we locate our first nest and set it up for protection.

 

Beginning May 1 we patrol the beaches daily looking for tracks left by nesting mother turtles every morning at dawn. The tracks look like huge tractor tire prints and are important to document as well as locating nests. Sometimes mothers crawl up and back to the water without laying eggs (false crawls) so photos of the tracks help us see if the same turtle chose a different location to nest or nested more than once. We mark the tracks with X’s to show we’ve reported the tracks/nest. The turtle moms are huge, weighing 175-350 lbs. If you are out on the beach at dawn, you’ll see us patrolling with green shirts on. We can only conduct volunteer work when wearing our shirts.

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Loggerhead and Green turtles lay their eggs overnight. When we locate a nest, a protocol is followed to mark the nest. We also cover the nest with a metal grate to protect the eggs from predators such as coyotes and foxes. The first nests came after Memorial Day this year but that was little later than usual. The nests take 55-75 days to hatch. We visually check our nests every day while patrolling. We stopped patrolling September 1. To the right are photos of a marked nest (the round area that mommy turtle dug with puffy loose sand left over the eggs), what the eggs look like when we have to relocate them because they are too close to the water and what a protected nest looks like that we have taped off.

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About day 50 we start checking the nests for activity of baby turtles. We set up an additional perimeter and only green shirt volunteers can breach that perimeter. We listen for movement with a stethoscope and when the baby turtles get active, volunteers sit at the nests every night until the nests hatch. As the nests get close to hatching, volunteers also set up a speaker system to listen to their noises as they scratch their way to the surface as well as an infrared camera.  We get all excited about nests hatching so you may see lots of green shirt volunteers

hovering near nest sites as the babies are busting out of their shells and heading toward the surface. Usually a baby turtle “scout” will lead the way. We call the baby turtles hatching a “boil” because all the baby turtles come up fighting through the sand all at once.

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All of the sea turtle volunteers are trained to know about our turtles and we are happy to answer questions.  

 

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PLEASE VISIT THE WEBSITE FOR SHARE THE BEACH IN GULF SHORES AT alabamaseaturtles.com for lots more sea turtle information. The training manual for volunteers is also filled with great information. And… follow Share the Beach-Alabama on Facebook and Twitter! Here's a website for turtle nesting protection in Florida. Here's a website by the National Park Service that reports on efforts in the National Seashore park in Florida and Mississippi.

 

 

Happy turtle seasons! Love, Sunny Lippert (Proud Laguna Key turtle team member)